Sunday, November 20, 2016

"The
Republican Party has been a sick, dysfunctional body for a long time. Denying
reality and living within a narrative of its own creation, it cannot really
participate in national governance and it cannot recognize its own illness.
Donald Trump is the opportunistic infection that comes in the terminal
phase."

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

"War is
hell. It's not terrible. It's awful. And in addition to being cruel and mean
and rotten, it's stupid, because look at what we do now. We take young people,
if the heads of state can't agree, you send young people to kill other young
people they don't even know, who may never have harmed them or anybody else,
and they get tired of killing them and then they stop and each side declares
victory, rests for a while, and they go back again and they start killing each
other again." - Benjamin Ferencz (96)

Beginning in 1945 with his prosecution of war criminals
during the Nuremberg Tribunal, the work of Benjamin Ferencz has long focused on
issues of international criminal justice and world peace. A strong supporter of
the International Criminal Court, Mr. Ferencz advocates steps to replace the
“rule of force with the rule of law.” This website is devoted to his
life’s work. LAW. NOT WAR

Monday, September 5, 2016

It was
the “the disinherited of the earth” who were the original candidates and
beneficiaries of the early Greek school of cynic philosophy organized in a
public gymnasium outside of Athens called Cynosarges.[1] It was here that
Antisthenes lectured, preached on the streets and developed the form of literature
called Cynics. As a student of Socrates, Antisthenes assimilated the
fundamental ethical precept: virtue not pleasure is the end of existence.
Everything that the wise person does, Antisthenes taught, conforms to perfect
virtue, and pleasure is not only unnecessary, but a positive evil. He is
reported to have held pain and even ill-repute to be blessings, and said
that "I'd rather be mad than feel pleasure".[2]

Foucault
outlined the following interpretive description of the original characteristics
that made up the ancient life of cynic (bios
kunikos).

First, the kunikos life is a dog’s life in that it is without modesty, shame,
and human respect. It is a life which does in public, in front of everyone,
what only dogs and animals dare to do, and which men usually hide. The Cynic’s
life is a dog’s life in that it is shameless.
Second, the Cynic life is a dog’s life because, like the latter, it is indifferent. It is indifferent to whatever may occur, is not attached to anything, is
content with what it has, and has no needs other than those it can satisfy
immediately. Third, the life of the Cynic is the life of a dog, for it received
the epithet kunikos because it is, so
to speak, a life which barks, a diacritical (diakritikos)[3]life, that is to say, a life
which can fight, which barks at enemies, which knows how to distinguish the
good from the bad, the true from the false, and masters from enemies. In that
sense it is a diacriticallife: a
life of discernment which knows how to prove, test, and distinguish. Finally,
the Cynic life is phulaktikos. It is
a guard dog’s life, a life which knows
how to dedicate itself to saving others and protecting the master’s life.[4]

Underneath the Cynic’s life was a cheerful
irreverence in its historical form. Moreover there was an air of eternal
adolescence, for in its sovereign individualism it ignored the needs of society
at large. Nonetheless, the Cynic’s life was a full-hearted response that was
essential to human flourishing in a society that, like today, was beset with
subtle and harsh, inhumanities, injustices and vanity. Accordingly, there was an
absence of tribal recognition in the Cynics ethos, like Diogenes who was not an
Athenian or Corinthian, but a wanderer, a citizen of the universe—a human being
who made little of his race while standing apart from the rest of society. The
Cynic possessed the right to exercise frankness (truth-telling, parrhesia). Demetrius, the first Roman
Cynic, tormented three successive emperors, Caligula, Nero, and Vespasian, and
remarkably, suffered nothing worse than exile. Other Cynics, no doubt, were
less fortunate. In Roger Caldwell estimation, “Having the courage to tell what
they saw as the truth without regard for rank or authority (in the capacity
more­ or ­less of licensed jester) the Cynics are exemplary.”[5]

In
our 21st century, a consumerist age, the message and practice of the
Cynics ethic is essential for one’s preservation—to distinguish one’s wants
from one’s needs, to simplify one’s life, to seek to do with less—less
nationalism, less consumption of goods that pollute and destroy the air, water
and atmosphere, and the mind—less head-in-the-sand naiveté with respect to the
conventional forces that dumb down the larger society (das Man) with its dominant scripts and narratives that have been
summed up by Walter Brueggemann as “technological, therapeutic, consumer
militarism.”[6]

Of
course, in everyday parlance, the term cynic or cynicism receives a poor rap, for
it tends to conjure up ideas of pessimism and distrust. If virtue is the end or
goal of existence, e.g., hope, then, as
Maria Popova has wisely said, “Critical thinking without hope is cynicism.”[7] Hence
the deficit is self-protective resignation (or the modern notion of cynicism) while
the excess is blind resignation or naiveté. Foucault emphasized the virtue of courage in the historical practice and ethics
of the life of Cynic; hence the extremes would be cowardice and fool hardiness.
Fleshing out Gentle Cynicism in the last few years, I have recognized the development
of the virtue, integrity (true
to self, authentic,
honesty) with its
excesses being feign ignorance and arrogance.

The life of Cynic fleshed out this vital philosophical ethic
using a host of methods and disciplines. While the ancient form appears more
ascetic, the post-modern practice of Gentle Cynicism utilizes critical
thinking, forms of phenomenology and various disciplines to navigate places
of tension being self-aware while preventing the extremes. In the spirit of
ancient Cynic, Gentle Cynicism negotiates a context of time requiring a
response to move more fully to a place where hope enlarges. It
is a realm of practices and outlook that vigorously works with the limitations
of a world juxtaposed with the social and moral issues of the day, filtered
through narrative, poetry, philosophy and social ethic, and the classic virtues
replace conventional sentiment and correctness. In the end the life of
Cynic is about discovering, living and promoting truth as it unfolds and
devotion to the virtues that are the only source of human fullness (eudaimonia).

[7]Popova, Maria, transcript from interview, “Cartographer
of Meaning in a Digital Age” accessed from On Being with Krista Tippett, 05/14/2015, accessed at http://onbeing.org/program/transcript/7584#main_content.
See also “Response to Maria Popova’s Cautionary Essay regarding a Culture
of Cynicism” accessed at http://gentlecynic.blogspot.com/2016/06/response-to-maria-popova-cautionary.html

[8]
Giles Laurén, The Stoics Bible and
Florilegium for the Good Life (Createspace, 2010). Epilogue.

Image: Brandon Kidwell, "To Find Truth, Sometimes Have to Reach into the Darkness" at http://www.brandonkidwell.com/

Monday, August 8, 2016

Being-in-the-world
requires more than mere survival or das Man (quiet conformity to the
conventional world) if one is to experience eudemonia (human flourishing)[1]
or using Heidegger’s term, authenticity. The masses too easily conform to dominate
narratives (social and otherwise) that include activities regarded as worthy of
one’s time and effort, values and meanings to pursue, and particular styles and
forms through which to pursue assumed goals. The cynic historically via
contemplation and reflection grows or expands into authentic life, i.e., to
“become what one is.” Such a project
means critical self-reflection, a coherent theory, committed engagement in
practical philosophy and eschewing aspects of one’s contemporary social world, not
wanting to simply be one of the masses that functions as merely a place-holder
in a society that constantly reduces possibilities to the lowest common
denominator—“inauthenticity.” Without
authenticity, one has not the grounding by which to develop one’s own story and
the virtues that lead to the promise of eudemonia.[2] If
one is to follow the way of true life, one has to wrest control of one’s own life
from society. If not, then all of one’s decisions will continue to be made for him/her by
the unnoticed forces of the cultures in which one lives.

Heidegger alludes to this
phenomenon as lostness (in conformity) and the reversal of this mass plight in the
search for being (Being and Time).

'They'
even hide the process by which 'they' have quietly relieved us of the
'burden' of making choices for ourselves. It remains a complete mystery
who has really done the choosing. We are carried along by the 'nobody',
without making any real choices, becoming ever more deeply ensnared in
inauthenticity. This process can be reversed only if we
explicitly bring ourselves back from our lostness in the 'they'. But
this bringing-back must have that kind of being by the neglect of which we
have lost ourselves in inauthenticity.

It is with this spirit (Geist) of reversal that I further
promote Gentle Cynicism (GC) as a disciplined practice with the aim of turning
toward an authentic being in time, where speech breaks from the discourse and
practices (values, interests, behaviors) of das
Man and attempts to take responsibility for one’s life as a whole. I have
experienced the emerging philosophy of GC as a dynamic filter between the
flourishing (possibility of) self or authenticating self with the larger society
(das Man) and its dominant scripts
(narratives),[3]
like sifting chaff from wheat. GC is
ultimately a search for what is best or good rather than what is simply
accepted. The gentle cynic reads,
listens, contemplates with his/her mind (Geist)
the wisdom of prophets, poets, writers, philosophers, musicians, theologians, sages
of history and perhaps a tradition or community
versus the dominant scripts or myths peddled by popular media,
Hollywood, politicians, military, sports, advertisers, big business. GC seeks
to actually participate with or work toward a vision of human flourishing (human
centered) while differentiating what misses the mark (illusions both personal
and societal).

Hence, Gentile Cynicism has
become a way of protecting one’s autonomy by training the whole self (as subject)
to actively explore, examine, test and experience more fully the vibrant,
flowing, and invigorating reality of humanity's creative energy and purposes,
and less the draining emptiness and existent bitterness of a fragmented world.
It is a way of moving through (not stepping away from) tensions where there is
a complex array of easy-to-get-to thin practices, answers and ideals on one
side (along with their alluring advertisements); while on the other, profound,
thick sources of questions, contradictions and insights that invite persistent
souls toward the way of becoming more fully human.

[1] See Moving from
the thin idea of “Happiness” to the classical pursuit of Eudemonia: http://gentlecynic.blogspot.com/2014/12/moving-from-thin-idea-of-happiness-to.html

[2]R. Ryan, V.
Huta, E. Deci, “Living Well: a Self-determination Theory Perspective on Eudaimonia”
Journal of Happiness Studies (January 2008, Volume 9.1, pp 139–170)
presents a model of eudaimonia that is based in self-determination theory,
arguing that eudaimonic living can be characterized in terms of four
motivational concepts which appears to explain the motivation psychologically
of the GC:

(1)
pursuing intrinsic goals and values for their own sake, including personal
growth, relationships, community, and health, rather than extrinsic goals and
values, such as wealth, fame, image, and power;

(2)
behaving in autonomous, volitional, or consensual ways, rather than
heteronomous or controlled ways;

In
fact, they theorize that the first three of these aspects of eudaimonic living
have their positive effects of psychological and physical wellness because they
facilitate satisfaction of these basic, universal psychological needs.

[3] Walter
Brueggemann describes the dominant (American) scripting (narrative) in our
society as a script of technological, therapeutic, consumer militarism that
socializes us all, liberal and conservative, which is enacted through
advertising and propaganda and ideology, especially on the liturgies of
television (media), promises to make us safe and to make us happy. Brueggemann
further calls for descripting,
relinquishment and disengagement from the dominant script and a counter
narrative/script that is managed by disciplined practice that may well be linked
to a tradition or community.

Saturday, July 16, 2016

A recent
reading of Michel Foucault, The
Courage of Truth,[1] reveals
the long history of Cynicism viewed on the basis of a theme of life as “scandal
of the truth”, or of “style of life as site of emergence of the truth” (bios as alethurgy[2]) (p. 180). Foucault wrote,

[In its ancient form] Cynic practice, the requirement of an
extremely distinctive form of life—with very characteristic, well defined
rules, conditions, or modes—is strongly connected to the principle of
truth-telling, of truth-telling without shame or fear, of unrestricted and
courageous truth-telling, of truth-telling which pushes its courage and
boldness to the point that it becomes intolerable insolence. The connecting up
of truth-telling [parrhêsia] and mode of life, this fundamental, essential
connection in Cynicism between living in a certain way and dedicating oneself
telling the truth us all the more noteworthy for taking place immediately as it
were, without doctrinal mediation, or at any rate within a fairly rudimentary
theoretical framework. . . Cynicism appears . . . to be a form of philosophy in
which the mode of life and truth-telling are directly and immediately linked to
each other. (pp. 165-6)

Cynicism was
a distinct shift within the locus of the parrhesiatic speech, from
the political domain to the ethical, truth-telling as part of democratic
citizenship. More than mere franc speech it is more closely associated
with the notion of ethos. The Cynics and their concerns went beyond the
traditional topics of politics and democracy, unto questions of “happiness and
unhappiness [3] Historically Foucault
traced three profound historical paths or stances that resulted in the ethical
development of the self: the confession or the Christian hermeneutics of the
self, the Greek and Roman philosophical care of the self and the Cynical
parrhêsia or fearless speech.

[eudaimonia], good and ill fortune, slavery and freedom” of all
humankind. Cynicism established and sustained “constant relationship to the
self on the basis of a particular truth discourse”.

We could say
today, the cynic ("gentle" or otherwise) is one who publicly lives
out inconvenient truths concerning one’s daily existence, an existential
attitude and the mark of a sage (or development of); i.e., one who transforms
one’s own body in a ”theater of the scandal of truth” which ultimately
challenges ones’ fellow friends/citizens to radically revise their opinions,
institutions and common shared values. Cynicism should be viewed as
beginning with the “care of the self” in the struggle of living daily against
the normalization of injustices, violence, and uncaring modes and methods of
people and the planet. It means at some level a resistance to solitude or
estrangement, to “everything which separates the individual, breaks his links with
others, splits up community” and forces an individual back on himself and ties
him to his own identity in a constraining way.[4]
Thus in its subjective forms, truthful speech (parrhesia) is truth telling as a form of the care of
self, intended to do work, to have an effects on others and on ourselves—to
govern self and influence others.

[1] M Foucalt, The Courage of Truth(The Government of Self
and Others II) Lectures at the College De France, 1983-84.

[2]ἀληθουργής, someone who speaks the truth (a
hapax legomenon); This hapaxadjective is the result of composing the noun
meaning “truth” (alétheia, ἀλήθεια) with the noun meaning “action” or “deed”
(érgon, ἔργον). The “fictive word” forged by Foucault, alethurgy, is
decidedly defined to signify “the set of possible verbal and non-verbal
procedures by which one brings to light what is laid down as true as opposed to
false, hidden, inexpressible, unforeseeable, or forgotten,” in order to
conclude that “there is no power without something like alethurgy”. The word does not only sound like the combination of alétheia and érgon, but also like the combination of alétheia and liturgy. Liturgy,
in turn, is a civil duty that one performs at his or her own expenses (and
risks). As civil duty, it has a certain ritual, a series of forms and spaces
where it can be performed. In fact, throughout Foucault’s text, alethurgy goes
from “manifestation of truth” to mean the forms and rituals in which truth is
manifested as part of the technique of government.

[3]Foucault’s 1984 lectures on The Courage of Truth,
http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/foucault1313/the-thirteenth-seminar/

[4] Cristian Iftode, Foucault’s Idea of Philosophy as
‘Care of the Self:’ Critical Assessment and Conflicting Metaphorical Views. West University of
Timisoara, Romania: Elsevier Ltd., 2013

An Invitation to the Practice of Gentle Cynicism

Welcome to my episodic public journal (mostly notes) where I share musings resulting from my practice of gentle cynicism. This practice does not follow the modern concept of cynicism, but a philosophical way of living with ancient philosophical, religious, classical and medieval roots. It takes the form of a dynamic filter between one’s full self (i.e., the flourishing self with one's influencing community) and the world, like sifting chaff from wheat. Moreover, it is a search for what is best or simply commonly good rather than what is simply accepted (e.g., the wisdom of prophets, poets, writers, philosophers, musicians, theologians, sages versus the dominant script or myth peddled by popular media, Hollywood, politicians, military, sports, advertisers, big business). It seeks to actually participate with or work toward a vision of Shalom and human flourishing while differentiating what misses the mark (illusions both personal and societal). "Shalom" is a vision of an inscrutable God or the universal potential of emerging wholeness, peace, grace, wellness, wisdom.

Gentile Cynicism is thus a way of training the whole self to actively discover and experience more fully the vibrant, flowing, and invigorating reality of humanity's creative energy and purposes, and less the draining emptiness and forthcoming bitterness of a fragmented world. It is a way of moving through (not stepping away from) tensions where there is a complex array of easy-to-get-to thin practices, answers and ideals on one side; while on the other, profound, thick sources of questions, contradictions and insights that invite persistent souls toward the way of becoming more fully human.

Member

DJ in Brief

Reared in Hamilton OH, served as altar boy, excelled as Boy Scout, an aviation enthusiast, and golfer; joined U.S. AF (77) and stepped out in a lonely world. In '80 I encountered the story of Jesus which began a widespread human transformation and an emerging cognizance of the Way. I discerned a call to ministry and studied at Trinity College. Married in 87, taught MS English, began pastoral work in Richmond, VA, ordained in 92. In 93, I encountered ministry with a meta-church structure until 97, took a sabbatical and followed a path of enrichment while taking on classic spiritual disciplines thus broadening my theological horizons while applying doubt to my advantage. Moved to Harrisonburg, VA in 98, consulted in two industries; entered seminary in 03 to work out some significant formational projects at Eastern Mennonite Seminary; earned an MDIV while seeking to inch my way into a missional purpose and responding to an ongoing emerging church conversation with a growing cognizance of the Way non-violently via peace-making in a chaotic, fragmented and violent world filled with harsh realities and challenges.